Pair of Doll Quilts

Here are my two recent finished doll quilts.  The green one is true in color, but I don't know what happened to the one patch of squares.  Yikes, this one is so much brighter, and not nearly so yellow as it appears.  Anyway, there is a little surprise in the latter - a tiny four patch.  I'm hoping to complete the quilting on many of my already basted, and ready to quilt, doll quilt tops.  They are really a joy to hand quilt - nearly instant gratification, and a fun summer project, I think.  Easily portable to work on on the porch, inside while "watching" tv, at a sew-in with a friend.  I just love everything about them, and hope to hang some on a wall in a spare bedroom.   For now, I do enjoy just looking through the growing stack of little quilts.  Are you on the doll quilt bandwagon yet?

How About this Piece of Fabulous?

This caught my eye on Ebay.  It looked like it would make a nice little tree skirt for a feather-type tabletop tree.  I'm enjoying it now on my kitchen table for a while, though.  Did you notice that the center is a seven-pointed star?!  I didn't until it arrived, and I really studied it.  That makes it even more fun, I think.

A Face Only a Mother Could Love

Taryn at Repro Quilt Lover is giving away two copies of New Discoveries in American Quilts.  I thought the cover looked familar, so I checked the bookshelf.  Yep, there was a copy sitting on the shelf waiting patiently for some attention.  The doll quilt on pg 109 caught my eye and was a great diversion from trimming hst. My constant alternate fabric reads a little stronger than the antique quilt, but a pretty close copy.

Thanks, Taryn, for the intermission!  Now back to hst!

Finally, Some Piecing!

There's been alot of antique quilt inspiration for me lately.  Long dry spell with no sewing, but a quilt from the Elizabeth Richardson quilt exhibit in Bowling Green, KY inspired me to ignore the long list of 'projects in flight'.  My garbled notes needed to be deciphered quickly while still fresh in my mind's eye.  It's been refreshing moving out of my Civil War repro comfort zone - the antique quilt is c 1840.  Fun digging thru stash to find fabric appropriate to the time period - I seldom use solids (and never muslin). 

The quilt has a deep mid-scale border and I found the perfect fabric at Whittle's not one hour after leaving the exhibit.  The time period of the border fabric is later (1876), but the color and scale are a match.  The constant alternate was from stash - Judie Rothermel Old Sturbridge Village Collection.  I'm half done with the pinwheels!

  

Jan and I visited the Quilter's Hall of Fame in Marion, IN to see the antique PA quilts from the collection of Pat and Arlan Christ. 

What a wonderful border on this quilt, c 1890, from the Kreider Estate of Lancaster Co.

And look at this backing fabric!  I'll take six yards, please.

This crib quilt, Sunbonnet Lassies made by Marie Webster, was featured in Ladies Home Journal, Aug. 1912.  It was inspired by the Sunbonnet Babies book illustrations by Bertha Corbett.  The quilting includes picket fences and flying birds. 

Hope there's alot of quilt inspiration influencing you!